...Hallyu began roughly 12 years ago when the rest of Asia discovered Korean soap operas. One of the breakthrough dramas was a series 'Winter Sonata' starring Choi Ji-woo & Bae Young-Joon. After that, more Korean dramas saw their way to foreign shores and Korean films and music started to follow suit. Korean marketing people started to see a Korea-centric trend. They dubbed this flow "The Korean Wave" or Hallyu....

17.9.12

[Photo & News] The cast of ‘Kagi Dorobou no Method’ talk about love, butts and beetles.

On September 15th, director Uchida Kenji’s first film in four years ‘Kagi Dorobou no Method‘ opened nationwide on 145 screens.

Uchida himself as well as its starring cast Sakai Masato, Kawagawa Teruyuki, Hirosue Ryoko, and Moriguchi Yoko attended a total of six stage greetings the same day including Tokyo Shibuya Cine Quinto, Shinjuku Wald 9, Chiba Keisei Rosa, and Tokyo United Cinemas Toyosu.

Prior to the screening in Shinjuku, Sakai appealed to the audience in typical fashion, “It’s an interesting movie. Please look forward to it. That’s all.” Kagawa added, “I’m sure you’ll have a great time. Even I would love to sit down and watch it together with all of you.”

Hirosue commented, “This movie is sure to make you happy on this extended weekend. You’ll laugh a lot and enjoy yourself.” Japan is celebrating a public holiday called ‘Keiro no Hi’ (Respect-for-the-Aged Day) on Monday, resulting in an extended weekend for everyone.

At the stage greeting, the cast was asked to write down a moment or something else that recently caused their hearts to beat faster, which is one strong motif of this identity-switching comedy. Moriguchi caused some laughter when she revealed that she wrote down ‘bottom’. Unconcerned she began to talk about the larva of a rhinoceros beetle, but Sakai and Kagawa couldn’t wait until she reached the point of her story.

Sakai interrupted her, “Where exactly are you going with this story?” Kagawa added, “Are you sure it’s going to be related to a story about butts?” Sakai continued, “Let’s just wait, it could be ‘If the wind blows the bucket makers prosper (Proverb meaning “any event can bring about an effect in an unexpected way”)’ kind of story.”

The truth is, a rhinoceros beetles is becoming an adult by shedding its skin and shaking its rear, which was an indirect joke about the scene in the movie where the two actors are exposing their bare bottoms.

Meanwhile, Hirosue revealed that she’s all crazy about Sakai’s new ‘monchhichi hair’. He recently got himself a new haircut and now really looks like a cute monchhichi in her eyes. She said, “The shorter, the better.” Immediately afterwards Director Uchida took of his trademark hat and tried to appeal with his own very short hairdo, while Kagawa exclaimed, “Hey! Somebody get me the barber’s clippers!”

Speaking of Kagawa, he simply wrote down Hirosue’s name on the board. They both have been working together from summer until fall for three consecutive years now and the setting for their roles got closer and closer each time they co-stared with each other. Kagawa explained it as a “pilgrimage of love“, which caused Director Uchida to panic. “Did you really have to say that?” Apparently he slightly spoiled the story of the movie with this peculiar choice of words.

Everyone was excitedly waiting for Sakai to reveal his board, only to find out he didn’t write down anything at all. He said, “Ever since I was born there hasn’t been a single thing that really caused my heart to race like crazy.” The audience was booing him and so he tried to apologize, “Excuse me for causing such a cold atmosphere. I’ve thought about it a lot, but there really is nothing. Moreover I’m slowly becoming precocious now, so if I feel my heart beating fast, it could be a heart attack.”

Distributor KlockWorx announced that they expect ‘Kagi Dorobou no Method’ to at least gross twice as much as Uchida’s previous movie ‘After School‘ (2008), which opened on 72 screens and grossed a total of 560,000,000 Yen (7,152,880 USD). “Our goal will be 1 billion Yen,” they said.